Apple's long had a device that sits quietly in your living room and brings its ecosystem to your television: the tiny Apple TV box.
At Apple's upcoming September 9 event, the company will reportedly announce a brand new version of the Apple TV that attempts to stake a larger claim of your television's time. Instead of targeting the TV you watch, though, it's apparently going to challenge what you play instead.
The new Apple TV apparently marks Apple's first big push into living room gaming, according to a report by 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman. A new Apple TV set-top device will reportedly be announced at Apple's September 9 event, which will support iTunes and App Store game downloads and add a new remote control that doubles as a motion controller for gaming.
The reported price of the new box? "Between $149 and $199" writes Gurman at 9to5Mac. The current Apple TV costs just $69.
Beyond adding direct, built-in access to the iTunes App Store and a remote control capable of doubling as a motion gamepad, the new Apple TV reportedly adds Bluetooth gamepad support. With any luck, games that previously used context-based virtual buttons (like "Grand Theft Auto 3," for instance) will simply work on the new Apple TV seamlessly with Bluetooth gamepads.
Gurman also says the new Apple TV will have deep Siri integration – the voice-based digital assistant that first appeared on the iPhone – and the new Apple TV remote will feature a microphone for interacting with Siri on an ongoing basis. It sounds a lot like Amazon's Fire TV set-top box, which has a built-in microphone on its remote control for controlling the system using your voice. Fire TV also featured a focus on gaming, and even paired with an Amazon-created gamepad.
If the report is accurate, we'll hear a lot more from Apple on gaming with Apple TV in a little over a week at the September 9 event.
